Chelsea Tactics and Transfers: Suspiciously splendid little start
Chelsea are top of the league on goal difference due to a phenomenal winning start to the season. Things appear to be going well, perhaps too well.
When Chelsea fired Antonio Conte and replaced him with Maurizio Sarri there were plenty of reasons to be skeptical. The squad didn’t appear ready, the new Italian manager hadn’t won anything, they had seemingly as many unhappy players as settled ones. That all said, Chelsea sure have started the year marvelously.
Five wins from five with 14 goals scored should not be ignored. To start the season off well is a positive note. West Ham are next and it looks like the streak could continue a little bit longer. Remember, it was only a little over a year ago Chelsea dropped the first match of the season to Burnley at home. Yes, bigger tests will come up this season than the teams Chelsea have played so far. But so often in recent years Chelsea have found ways to make the simple things difficult for themselves.
Handling this simple start to the season without a stumble is good. Chelsea supporters should be as happy as possible.
Manchester City have already stumbled, as have Tottenham and Manchester United despite not having particularly hard schedules either. Chelsea have been granted a reprieve during their early education under Sarri by the scheduling lords, but before long they’ll be tested.
That is when things will get interesting and we’ll learn more about the team. They simply are untested as of now, though they do appear to be quite diligent pupils of Sarrismo. Soon enough they’ll take their early exams against Liverpool. But for just over one week longer they have an easy route to maintaining their perfect record.
It’s definitely been a good season so far and things could be much worse. Hopefully the Blues know – given their recent history – they absolutely cannot rest on their laurels. It would be nice to see them finish a few games with clean sheets. They still need to get a striker scoring before the hard winter months. N’Golo Kante doesn’t seem comfortable yet and the third partner in midfield isn’t locked down.
Next. Maurizio Sarri follows tradition by setting the bar for Eden Hazard. dark
There’s a lot to do. But right now things are suspiciously splendid.